Bestseller wrongly removed for “violating handmade policy”. Just found the design stolen on Shein!

[KrissyEwinsArt]

Hello all!

I was very disappointed yesterday to see an email that my bestseller had been take down. A big blow to my shop and super discouraging. I immediately contacted the help desk through the live chat for it to be reviewed and was told it was escalated and I’d receive an email when it had been looked at. However, after reading around about people with a similar issue, it seems that can be a very long process and sometimes ineffective.

I also read that apparently Etsy’s systems can flag listings as unoriginal/mass produced if they appear on other sites. So after a reverse image search I found it on Shein! Has anyone successfully dealt with this problem before? Whether it’s getting stolen work taken off sites like that, or proving to Etsy it’s indeed your own original handmade product?

Thank you for any help and insight to this!

Krissy

[howtobooksandmore]

If it was posted on Shein the bots probably assumed it was mass produced and removed it.  You can file a DMCA with Shein and contact google about taking it out of search results.  Then alert Etsy to this and hope for the best.

[KrissyEwinsArt]

Thanks for your reply, I’ll give this a try!

[BijouBettyUK]

Have you had any luck asking Google to remove your stolen images from their search? I tried but they told me to work with the company who stole my images. 

[KrissyEwinsArt]

Update #1 for anyone else going through the same.

After the live chat saying they’d escalated it a few days ago I’d heard nothing so I contacted Etsy through their help centre this morning instead with a PDF showing the layers and steps of the illustration involved. I’ve just received a copy of the original email telling me about the handmade policy again. I then also received a reply saying amongst other things:

“ to clarify, your item(s) were removed for not meeting the criteria for what qualifies for sale on Etsy. Items listed as Handmade must be made or designed by you, the seller. The item(s) we removed from your shop appear to be commercially available. Sellers may not sell items which they have neither designed or created.”

Of course my product IS designed and created by me This just confirms to me it is because of one of the sites like Shein/Alibaba etc. I’ve managed to get it taken off Shein but Google wasn’t very helpful in removing the search result to it. I’m also not sure if I’ve actually managed to find everywhere that the product has been stolen. The Shein one was the only one I could find. 

I replied to the help ticket saying I still needed help so here’s hoping I can get an actual human to look at it. All while the “Keep Commerce Human” slogan sits staring at me in the corner of the help centre lol.

[cindylouwho2]

Great suggestions here for getting these issues resolved: https://www.reddit.com/r/Etsy/comments/1c0kpla/comment/kyysak7/

I hope you get this fixed soon! 

[KrissyEwinsArt]

Update #2

Not necessarily a proper update, but just wanted to post this as I’ve had a few people message me asking if I’d got this sorted. Unfortunately the answer is no, I’m still waiting. The listing is now off Shein and doesn’t appear in Google results any more. I tried contacting and tagging Etsy through social media, but nothing. My original email never got answered and I have one help request sat open from the earlier update.

My current situation is every so often I’m replying to my help request to say I still need help and sometimes contact the live chat. But that always just results in them saying they’ve “escalated it”. At this point I believe that’s a lie and isn’t actually a thing. I also had someone on the chat tell me a few weeks ago that it’d be “2-5 days” which is obviously just another lie to get me to go away.

If you’re reading this as someone in the same boat; I’m so sorry but this process is probably going to take a while. If and when I hear back from them I’ll update this forum post but if it’s currently sitting without a resolution you can assume I’ve not heard back.

After singing its praises for years, I’m now officially thoroughly disillusioned with Etsy as a platform.

[KrissyEwinsArt · Accepted solution]

Update #3

After 2 months I was starting to give up hope but it’s back up!! I added a message to my help request this morning saying I still needed help because it’d been two long months. 

Altogether after this, the best advice I could give is to open one help request with your evidence and reply to it now and then. Maybe it’s a coincidence that it got looked at after my message today, but I think it did help.

Fingers crossed this is the end of this journey for me and it doesn’t happen again.

Good luck to anyone reading this! 

[EllaArtisanJewellery]

Just adding in case its any help to anyone else that I agree this is the best advice to only open one help request & keep replying to it (it can take ages to get a reply but don't give up) 

I also had items removed & was told I was no longer eligible for star seller so opened a help request & got a reply after 5 weeks that they appeared to be commercially available

I replied to the help request that I still needed help with photos of the materials I tools I use to make the items & explained that my photos are regularly stolen (having a nightmare trying to get many removed from eBay currently!) eventually got a reply after another 3 1/2 weeks that they were removed in error & had been re listed

I understand that Etsy need to do something about the number of resellers but It does look like a huge amount of good genuine sellers are getting caught up in this & it really is stressful when you rely on the income from your Etsy shop

[AutumnHollowStudio]

@KrissyEwinsArt I am sorry this happened to you. Have you filed DMCA with Shein?

I just want to mention that your giclee prints are mis-spelled in the titles. It reads "gilcee" instead of "giclee" and that can affect your search rankings.

[KrissyEwinsArt]

@AutumnHollowStudio Oh my goodness this really shows the value of proof reading things! Thank you for pointing that out

Shein seem pretty quick to respond to takedown requests so I got that sorted quite quickly. Here’s a link for anyone who needs it:

https://m.shein.co.uk/ip-complaint?ref=m&rep=dir&ret=muk

[AutumnHollowStudio]

@KrissyEwinsArt  You're welcome! I am glad Shein was cooperative with you. : )